The Central government has exempted its employees from using biometric attendance till March 31 amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in India. The deadly virus has claimed over 3,000 lives across the globe so far.

"Though only a small number of novel coronavirus cases are reported in our country but keeping in view the nature of the virus, it is a must to take all possible preventive measures to stop the spread of the virus," the Ministry of Personnel said in a statement today.

"It is learned that the most common method of transmission of virus seems to be through infected surfaces. Therefore, it is desirable to avoid touching surfaces, which might be infected due to human touch," it further read. All the ministries, departments are requested to exempt their employees to mark biometric attendance in Aadhaar Based Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) till March 31, 2020. However, all the employees are required to mark their attendance in Attendance register (as done prior to the launch of biometric system), during this period," it said.